Is webcomics readership on the decline? The times are definitely changing for webcomickers, and we talk a little about finding a readership in 2014, monetizing your webcomic, and try and gaze into the crystal ball to see what the future holds for digital comics.

Just going by what we’ve observed, I really feel the “webcomics scene” peaked around 2008.

Oh, there are still ways for indie comics creators to get their stuff out there — moreso now than ever before. But attracting the MEGA audience you need to make it a sustainable thing is harder than its ever been.

The entrenched comics will keep on moving on, but it’s harder now for newcomers because you’re a drop in the ocean of free comics content.

That sounds negative, but it’s still possible to carve out some kind of income, I think. You’re just going to have to be smarter about it.

I have to say, I think that there are more webcomic readers now than ever before. They just might not know they are.

I see comics, strips, cartoons, gags, etc. pop up in my social media feeds ALL the time. They are all “webcomics”, but they are either one shots or a single entry in a longer narrative that is hosted elsewhere. These images get liked, shared and tweeted all across the web.

I would say that it’s not a case of there being fewer webcomic readers, but that the webcomic readership is more dispersed and perhaps diluted.

That is the issue. There are tons of potential readers, but they don’t really know that webcomics are there or that the funny thing they shared on Twitter is from a webcomic and there are more where that came from. That is the point we were making.

This is another podcast that makes me wish I could have you two over for dinner! I’ve had so many of the same thoughts. I maintain that the vernacular DOES matter, but that the terms that are limiting the pie are “comics” and “graphic novels.” For the people who are not already in the pool, these terms are both off-putting. “Comics” connotes either “funnies” or “super-heroes” and is usually associated with “childish.” “Graphic novels” sounds like a book that has a lot of sex and violence in it. People who are already in comics seem to think the rest of the world should change, and learn what comics really are. I think that’s unrealistic.

” People who are already in comics seem to think the rest of the world should change, and learn what comics really are. I think that’s unrealistic.” < good point!
And yes, next time we're in town we should totally do dinner. 🙂

Thank you for the mention of the Alliance podcast & article! I think the term “webcomic” definitely has the connotation of “unprofessional” or “amateurish”. I have wanted to get away from it for a while, but yet here it is. I do not refer to my work as a webcomic anymore. It’s just a comic or cartoon.

The general public… our intended audience… knows what a comic, comic strip or cartoon is. I agree, they have NO idea what a webcomic is, nor should they.

Seems to be the zeitgeist. We read that article and was like “Huh, this kind of intersects with what we were going to talk about.”

But yeah, comics are all gellin’ together here. Many of today’s paid professionals started in webcomics, some print pros are trying their hand at posting stuff online, some of us (myself included) are juggling both web and print projects these days.

Cats and dogs living together… mass hysteria! 😉

For the last year or two we’ve really been feeling that something was awry with the webcomics scene, but couldn’t quite put our fingers on it. Dwindling ad revenue and, frankly, a dwindling userbase seems to be pointing to a shift in comics consumption (yet again!)

So the pendulum seems to be swinging back to supporting indie comics directly with the green stuff — either with crowdfunding or by buying books and digital copies. BUT — not everyone making a webcomic today is going to benefit from this and I imagine a little “comic book Darwinism” is going to take place in the coming years.

The stuff that finds an audience that will support it financially will stay… but many others will just fade away.

So if you want to make comics, now is the time to up your game. Because “breaking in” is the easy part. Making a CAREER out of comics? That’s a whole ‘nother ball game.

If you’re trying to attract more readers, you have to be more specific with targets. If you do a comic about bikers, you may attend the usual circuit of comic cons, because there is a general audience who reads comics. But what about going to a convention or show where there is a general audience of people who are into bikes or biker culture (tattoos, etc).

I think many folks are afraid to try something different and stick to the ‘safe’ method, which leads to a lot of saturation and homogenization in indie comics.

I am so glad this conversation is being had and that it’s expanding and becoming more eloquently stated.

The way we are promoting indie comics, I agree, is somewhat incestuous in how we all cling to one another to carry us through the promotional maze of discovery and we aren’t venturing beyond our own niche to the greater e-publishing world. I may be off the mark here [and thats okay, I’m at least trying], but if you look at e-publishing as a whole, through literary and visual arts, there is a more cohesive and defined path to reaching a potential audience [at least in my minds eye]. I personally follow comic creators, inde authors, painters, photographers etc and by broadening my scope of those who create and how they deliver their content to consumers, has broadened my ability to understand how e-publishing and consumers are identifying with one another. Whether I’m on the right track with this perception is another thing, but I have learned from it, so its given me that much at least.

People know what e-publishing is, they’ll say “oh yeah, I can get just about any indie author I want off my Kindle”, generally speaking. Sequential art, before comixology, really didn’t have a consumer identifying home and I don’t have a sense of whether comicxology is the window we’ve been hoping for, now that amazon owns it. E-readers are popular, but our art form Isn’t really an understood or a known part of this format. I see a lot of people reading content on their laptops, tablets and other devices, but comic e-publishing has no defined home for consumers within it, does it? Consumers aren’t finding us through all those webcomic portals out there either. I doubt many even know what a comic rocket, or inkoutbreak is, as hard as those sites have tried to make it so for our benefit and theirs.

I disagree with the assertion people see e-publishing as a stigma to overcome [but that may just be me], when the goal of e-publishing is to be entrepreneurial and to control your content and define your brand without giving it up to a publishing syndicate. When I discuss e-publishing with people, they resonate with it’s freedoms to build something for yourself, over the cloud of others controlling your content. Maybe my window of the world has a tree blocking part of that view and I haven’t been exposed to it yet?!

I would actually make the opposite argument, the web has become the main way people view not only comics but art in general. Unlike a newspaper what people read (for better or for worse) cannot no longer be contained by what a newspaper is willing to publish. However the net is also an infinitely vast place with no structured rules or deadlines like the ones that exist in paper comics and that can frustrate some people into giving up because they mistakenly believe the comic is dead. The most likely reason in my mind however that it is difficult to monetize a webcomic isn’t because readership is going down but because the net is flooded with quite literally thousands upon thousands of webcomics that have literally no rules in the stories they tell and many are quite good. Even comics that stand out as artistically excellent and have an original, well thought out plot (such as this one) can become somewhat lost in that sea as the sheer number can continuously spread readers out over the internet. Those few webcomics that are financially able to support themselves seem to have been ones that have been around since the earlier days of the web (such as Kevin and Kell 1995) and we’re able to build up a dedicated fan base when there were far fewer competitors for the readers attention.

“Those few webcomics that are financially able to support themselves seem to have been ones that have been around since the earlier days of the web (such as Kevin and Kell 1995) and we’re able to build up a dedicated fan base when there were far fewer competitors for the readers attention.” < Yep, we mention that several times in the podcast. Early adopters had it harder in the fact that they had to clear a path, but they had it easier in that there was much, much less competition 10-15 years ago.
Maybe it's not the actual number of webcomic readers that is shrinking, but rather that they're being spread too thin over too many comics. New comics are popping up faster than audiences can be grown for them. Whatever the case may be, most available site data points to a slow decline in readership / pageviews for many of the "old guard" webcomics over the past few years and fewer still new comics seem to find the massive success that those guys had.

I don’t read your comic, I found this while searching around for podcasts about webcomics. I’m not trying to be rude at all, but you have me worked up.

I don’t understand where you’re coming from to have such an uninformed opinion. Webcomics have honestly never been bigger and it’s never been easier to find an audience. I would say that the bar has definitely been raised over the years and so people’s expectations are much higher than they used to be.

There is a huuuuge saturation of comics, but that doesn’t matter because 99% of them aren’t any good. The cream rises to the top, people find out about them through social media, through word of mouth.

It’s not enough nowadays to just put a comic on the web. It has to be a good, professional level comic for people to care. It’s actually really cool to see that webcomics have standards nowadays.

Thanks for the opinions. They’re pretty much exactly what we stated ourselves – oversaturation, cream rising to the top, etc. etc. We said people need to bring their A game to get noticed in 2014.

Did you actually *listen* to the podcast before writing this comment?

My *opinions* have been informed by years of professional experience in print comics, running a fairly successful webcomic myself for over 4 years as well as nearly 20 years of marketing experience. We’re not the first people to make these observations, nor will we be the last.

You’re saying you’re not trying to be rude, but you’re telling me I’m “pulling opinions out of my ass.”

I’d hate to see what you have to say when you’re actually *trying* to be rude. 😉

Since you’re not using your real name or a real email address, I’m going to assume that you’re also pulling opinions out of your own ass as I can’t verify who *you* are. I stand by my opinions and don’t feel the need to hide behind an anonymous username.

Have a great night and don’t lose any sleep over the podcast or the state of our comic. We’re fine. 🙂

Hello! I just stumbled upon your podcast episode, and I found it very interesting. Thank you!

If I may put in my two cents, focusing on serialized webcomics, as opposed to “strip” type webcomics.

1) I think the serialized nature of long-form webcomics are driving readers away. If a reader has to wait for a week or two before reading the next page of one story, he or she will most likely stop.

2) Many webcomics are not mobile-friendly. As more people move to mobile devices, those webcomics that are difficult to read on a tablet or smartphone will experience an decline in readership.

3) I personally think the general public is already aware of webcomics. One key reason that they’re not reading webcomics is that they haven’t found any that they’d like to read. So, yes, marketing plays a big factor here. But it’s a lot harder to market long-form serialized webcomics.

– – – – – – –

Like webcomics, self-published fiction was once seen as having “lesser quality.” But recently, there have been a growing number of self-published fiction authors who are earning full-time income, as authors are making efforts to release good-quality work.

To build their audiences, self-published fiction writers put in an extraordinary amount of work in the beginning–at least three novels to start with. They put up one novel online for free. The second novel is the opt-in bonus when interested readers sign up for an email newsletter. The third novel onward will be for sale. I believe this model can work for webcomic creators, too.

– – – – – – –

I think that, for webcomics to succeed, creators have to start thinking in terms of complete stories that can be consumed in five minutes or less. Like you said, the attention span of people browsing the Web is very short.

So here’s my suggestion:

1) Create webcomics with an audience in mind. Choose a market and create the best stories for that market. It’s not enough to say, “This is for the comic book/webcomic market.” Be specific with lifestyle demographics: “This is for baseball-loving teen guys,” or “This is for career-oriented women in their mid-20s.” By doing this, focusing marketing efforts will be easier.

2) Start off by preparing at least three short self-contained stories, three to nine pages each. The first two will be posted for free reading online. The third will be used as an opt-in bonus for anyone who signs up for the mailing list.

3) Create two new short, self-contained stories every month. One will be posted for free reading by the public. The other will be given exclusively to email subscribers.

4) Solicit feedback from email subscribers on every story released. This feedback will give the creator an idea of what kinds of stories people want.

5) Down the line, compile the short stories into a printed anthology, with two or three bonus stories. This will be for sale.

6) As readership grows, add merchandise for sale.

It’s a lot of work, but it’s not impossible to do. And those who are willing to make sacrifices and think of webcomics as a business have a higher chance of succeeding.

I do agree with a lot of what you said. I think that the long lag in updates on long form definitely can push readers away. I also agree that webcomics should be mobile friendly.
I also agree it is a good idea to have an audience in mind and that tailoring your story to that audience will make it easier to market. I am not really sure about the short story ideas. Webcomics can be very time consuming and doing 3 short stories a month (at 9-27 pages) is not necessarily dooable for some people. If you are just writing stories that is easy enough, but in regards to doing all the art too, that might make it harder to keep up. Something to consider.

just stumbled across this! I’ve seen you guys around on Tapastic, I’m currently writing/drawing Silversong (sorta adding to you saturation, heh)

I’m not sure about the future of webcomic and I have noticed people looking around for new ideas like crazy. This has given me food for thought on the issue since as far as marketing goes, no one has a set answer …

At the mo, I’m not thinking about monetizing, more just growing, Thou my plan was to go to a con and hand out free comics of my series with links to encopurage reading but I’ll think harder of how you’d bring in more readers in future.

Hey guys, I know I am reviving an old thread here, but having just listened to it, I gotta say it’s as relevant as a year ago when this podcast came out. I’ve only been serious about publishing my web-comic for the past 5 months or so. I thought I had it all: a unique visual style with a good story to tell, and with a steady page per week schedule I was expecting to get a lot of readers fast. You can already see where this is going…

I decided to go with ComicFury, as it had some good reviews. Four months in, I quickly gained about 50 readers, but my readership hasn’t been growing at all for the past month, and I don’t really expect it to grow much more. I tried searching my comic on the portal and found it around page 16, but it might as well be on page 100. I was also worried that my webcomic is not noticed because it is lost among a huge number of much lower-quality works. So I decided to host on another website: Tapastic. It’s slick-looking, modern, aimed at mobile devices and has an overall higher quality of comics. So I uploaded there, but found that now my webcomic is lost among a vast amount of high-quality works. Well, that didn’t work. Time to hit the forums for advice, right?

And it turned out to be the same advice reiterated ad nauseam. Be active “in the community” and on the forums, subscribe and comment on other people’s work, especially the more popular kind, draw fanart for them, and “just stick with it until it works” (aka to defeat the cyberdemon you need to shoot at it until it dies). I tried following the advice, but other than offering a very small return on the significant time investment it takes, all it does is, exactly as you said, market my webcomic directly to other creators. Even if it boosts the subscriptions, congratulations, it’s now a modestly sized circlejerk. And the cherry on top: it’s also shrinking together with the whole webcomics pie.

In the end, it doesn’t matter how good I think my story and art are if they are never seen and judged by the outside readers. I knew about webcomics and even read some before starting to work on my own, but I never even heard of these webcomic websites until I needed one to host. That’s pretty crazy! So the only logical conclusion is what you suggest – marketing aimed outside of these webcomic portals. But how?

So my question to you is this – let’s assume that there’s a webcomic creator with surplus money. Let’s say this creator has 2 grand to spend for marketing purposes this year, with no intention of turning any profit whatsoever, but with the intention of gaining a sizeable readership for the webcomic that is not other creators. How would that creator go about spending the money and reaching out to potential readership? Buy ad space, and if so, where? Hire a marketing company? I’d love to know your thoughts on this!

HMM. This is a tough one, because YMMV. We had the advantage of time — we started our comic over five years ago under much different circumstances. Back then, Project Wonderful was pretty much *it* if you wanted to advertise your comic to other webcomic readers. While it’s still a great system, it’s sadly fallen out of vogue with a lot of webcomic sites and has been replaced with Adsense or house ads on many.

Personally — if it were MY money — I’d try to find some commonality with other genres that might appeal to your readers and try Adsense or targeted Facebook ads. Be warned that at first you’ll probably be throwing spaghetti against the wall to see what sticks, but eventually you’ll likely find a sweet spot that “fans of XYZ” tend to like your work.

Also, sites like Tapastic are GREAT for finding readeships, as people go there just to read comics. But again, early adopters tend to benefit the most as they got in when the competition wasn’t as fierce, built their subscribers, and get a pageview boost when they update due to their already large subscriber base (think Youtube) which tends to rocket them to the top of the Popular / Trending page, attracting even MORE subscribers.

I really wish I had more answers, but it’s tough out there and not every solution works equally well for everyone!

But yeah.. in 2014 (or 2015!) building a successful webcomic presence requires a little more out-of-the-box thinking!

Thank you for the reply! Actually, I think it’s a very sound advice, and it has a real strategy behind it, which is nice to have if you make a monetary investment. Talk about trying to define your audience – chances are, it’s not who you think they are going to be.

Because I work in long form, I will also probably need to wait until I am done with the first act of the story, so that readers have a sizeable chunk of story to read with a beginning, middle, and end. I definitely understand why readers don’t hang around long-form comics coming on a page-per-week basis. It’s like listening to a storyteller with a particularly bad case of hiccups.

Now here’s a funny idea – advertising a Tapastic comic by placing ads on more popular works… on Tapastic.